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W. J. SMITH, M.C. (?) 

Eighth District of Tennessee, 

lite man wlto bolted the Republican Nomination, and by 
fraud and rascality, defeated the Election of 

Hon. D. A. WTJNN. 



His Legislative and Poetical Antecedents,- 

Bribery, Frauds and Extortion, 



Can a Republican Congress afford 
to sustain such a man? 



V 

The following letters of* Col. Bon Piatt, have been 

very generally copied hy the Press. West and 

Month, and are now printed i as this tor in 

for the in tor in at ion ol* ill em hers 

of" Congress. 



Every member of the House who is opposed to Imposters and 
Charlatans should read these Letters, 



BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE ANTECEDENTS 



OF 



W. J. SMITH, (M.C.?) 

From the Washington correspondence of the Cincinnati Commercial. 

Washington, December 20, 18G9. 
A SPECIMEN BRICK. 

If any half dozen spectators in the gallery of the House were 
called upon, separately, (o point out, in the crowd of members be- 
low, the one that, from his get-up, gave the best evidence of being- 
there through some violent eruption, or mud volcano, in our social 
and political formation, each would select a queer, little, slender 
creature, who. continually shambling about, exhibits a body that 
came into the world only half made up, and that so lamely that 
even Moses and Son fail to give it the semblance of a man. 

• His small, beardless face has bilt one expression, that i> of low 
cunning. His head of dry. withered hair suggests poverty of soil, 
and cries out for a top dressing of some rich fertilizer. It is across 
between Uriah Beep and Tim Dodge. His manner carries in it an 
humble apology for being alive, and his movements suggest moral 
irregularity. 

This is the Honorable W. .1. Smith, of the Eighth District of Ten- 
nessee, commonly called, where he is best or worst known, '-Old 
Jerusalem." His political career, lately investigated and about to 
be published by the House Committee on Elections, is one of the 
most extraordinary ever known in either fiction or fact, and goes to 
show what the South has brought upon itself by the wicked and 
unholy war against the best government in the world. 

Where Old Jerusalem originated is unknown. There is a belief 
prevalent that he was ejected in a moment of extreme nausea from 
the State of Vermont, But I am unwilling that the Mountain State 
should be held responsible for such an evil. As seven cities claimed 
the honor oJ being the birth-place of Homer, so thirty-six States 
stand prepared to make affidavit that Old Jerusalem did not origi- 
nate with them. 



4 

The first we know of him. positively, he w: s a peddler of peanuts 
Mini gum-drops on the Memphis and Charleston railroad. It was 
said that he had failed in the house and sign painting busine^, and 
a forlorn and dejected man wis said to he about, once a partner in 
the business, hut after the only remaining asset. 

It was further rumored, that at the (irand function Old .Jerusa- 
lem held, owned and occupied a half acre devoted to hort icult i ral 
products, commonly called a nursery. For this I cannot vouch, and 
must say that it is very doubtful. But for the peanuts and gum 
drops T can answer, as I have conversed with in telligehl and hbtiesl 
people, who have suffered from seeing and dealing with the trader 
in that capacity. 

When the war broke out Old Jerusalem turned up before the 
world as quartermaster of the Sixth West Tonne-see Cavalry. lie 
was a fitting quartermaster for this gallant body of gentlemen, who, 
pledging their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to the holy cause 
asked nothing in return, being eminently capable of living on the 
enemy, and failing in that, persuading, wit\\ t heir arms a livelihood 
out of their friends. Old Jerusalem would have preferred being 
sutler, but thai useful office was abolished by a promiscuous clean 
in-' out of the establishment in about fifteen minutes !,y the ^allani 
gentlemen of the spurs. 

No learned and elaborate historian has appeared to give us Ten 
nessee in the war, so that ! am at a loss in putting ><> record the 
daring deeds of this renowned regiment. I am inclined to believe, 
however, that it was engaged in the less dangerous, but more ar 
duous duty of supporting itself. We may gather what this amount 
ed to wlnm we learn, as we do through the records of I lie War Qe. 
partment, that it required the rations of twenty-two men to support 
the family of the Quartermaster alone. It is true that some absurd 
old pumps, who figured as Brigadier and Major Generals, objected f<> 
this informal mode of proceeding, and procured the arresi of the 
Venerable Jerusalem, and charged him with conduct becoming a 
convict, and but for the strange lps3 of the papers, at Nashville, this 
patriotic Solon would now, in all probability, he in durance vile, 
instead of serving as a light from Tennessee in the Cpngress of the 
United State-, 

Escaping the absurd formalities of military law, our hero after 
ward figured as Major of the regiment, and, in the absence of his 
superior officers, signed himself, luminously, acting Lieutenant 
Colonel. As acting Lieutenant Colonel, however, heconlinu d his 
peculiar system of warfare, even to robbing a church. Hut (he 



church was that of the Methodist Church South, long before given 
over to the devil, and, therefore, a proper subject for a forced loan. 
The war being ended, and the great State under process of recon- 
struction, sanctioned, guided and controlled by the pious Brown- 
low, Old Jerusalem had himself returned to the Legislature by his 
own gallant regiment, and appeared in that august body as Smith 
of Hardeman. 

AS A LEGISLATOR. 

He loomed up larger as a law-maker than he had as a military 
law-breaker. The bills he introduced were numerous, and looking 
to the public good generally, kepi Old Jerusalem's interest in view 
all the time. 

One bill, passed to a law, created an immense freight company 
for the ci'ty of Memphis. Memphis had suffered during the war to 
-uch an extent that she was actually without a freight company. 
Smith, of Hardeman, made one. It was immense. It was so great 
1 hat no other company was thought to be necessary — and this 
charter said so. It ruled out all others. An old woman could not 
send home a basket of potatoes by any other means than the great 
Memphis Freight Company. 

For this far-seeing and patriotic efforl Old Jerusalem received 
the recompense of great reward in the shape of twenty live thous- 
and dollars worth of stock. Unfortunately for the old festive cuss, 
the courts intervened, and knocked the great company endwise. 
The stock collapsed, and the venerable Smith considered himself 
an ill-used man. 

His next move was to augment the fare on the Memphis Street 
Railroad from live to ten cents. For this he received the pitiful 
sum of live thousand dollars. He then procured the passage of a 
law incorporating a company — the old Memphis Freight Company, 
mind — that gave it possession of all the roads and the bridges 
thereon leading into Memphis, with the right to repair them if said 
company so wished; and at any rate forcing it to charge toll. Thus 
roads made and bridges built by the people were ingeniously put 
in the hands of Smith, an old partner named Merriman and one 
Slack, a brother-in-law, without the expenditure of a cent. 01' 
course the company obeyed the law and collected toll, with exem- 
plary activity. This was extended to foot passengers. Venerable 
colored persons who had traversed these routes from early child 



6 

hood free, were called upon for their ten cents, and not allowed to 
pass without this small amount of fractional currency. 

The Memphis papfers made themselves perfectly absurd by protest 
i 1 1 ir against this beautiful practice. And they even went so far as 
to get pathetic over one old Gaberiungy who tried to pass a bjpitlge 
one wintry night, and not having the necessary dime, was driven 
off. The poor old creature, objecting to freeze to death so near 
home, attempted to wade the river and was drowned. 

His body was fished out a few day after, with hi- -ivy eyes star- 
ing at the pitiless world as if very much astonished, ami his old, 
withered hands frozen above his head, as if the ridiculous old crea- 
ture had been calling upon God to do something about it. Served 
him right. lie ought not to have tried to evade the law and swiii 
die the company. 

He was so useful to the sinful and stupid city of Memphis as the 
member from Hardeman, thai at the next election he was returned 
as Senator from thai rebellious place. Memphis was unhappy, of 
course. But I hold that Old .Jerusalem is senl as a punishment to 
the rebellious and stiff-necked -inner-. From the Stale Senate of 
Tennessee to the Congress of the United States is but one step, for 
such a Smith And here he is with his seal a— ailed— contested, it 
is called — by anot her man. who claims to In- more duly elected 
than Old Jerusalem. 

AS A CLAIMANT. 

The biography of this remarkable man would be incomplete 
without reference to his wonderful talent as a claimant. 

Toward the (dose of the war he appeared before Genera] Hurl- 
burt, then in command at Memphis, with a claim of three thousand 
dollars for damages done him by the rebels. The General's milita- 
ry bowels of compassion wer • -<> moved that he issued an order as- 
sessing the los> upon the rebels of Hardeman — each mother's -on 
of them to pay in proportion to his worldly goods. 

These wicked rebels were assessed ami execution had; for that 
the nursery of Grand Junction had been despoiled. Pianos were 
seized and sold, household furniture put up, and even pot- and pans 
levied upon, that Old Jerusalem might lie rebuilt. 

Not content, however, with this raid, Smith, of Hardeman, while 
in the Legislature, came back with his claim, that had now grown 
to eiirht thousand dollars. R\s tale of woe so moved (Jen. Geofrge 



11. Thomas, that he also issued an order of assessment. But, fortu- 
nately for the wicked rebels of Hardeman, the order passed through 
General Washburn's hands, then in command at Memphis, and he 
stopped it in transitu, calling General Thomas'' attention to the 
fact that said claim, in its infancy, had been satisfied. 

Theft the Venerable Jerusalem turned his attention to Congress. 
He sent thither his promising claim, that had now grown to the 
enormous magnitude of twenty-two thousand do lars. It is a prec- 
ious document. The nursery and peanut stand at Grand Junction 
have grown into a plantation. The plantation has been ravaged. 

The items are given with painful accuracy, down to two ducks 
and six chickens. The claim was forwarded to the Hon. Mr. Stokes. 
and as it seemed to hang drearily on Stokes' hands, Ancient Jeru- 
salem procured his so-called return to Congress, and was scarcely 
sworn i'n before the Hon. Stokes handed him the papers, saying: 
"There's your claim now prosecute it yourself." 

I learn from some members of the Committee on Elections — and 
from thence I gat the details for the pleasing little historical sketch 
—that the seat claimed is considered shaky, and after the holidays 
the ■v'eii&rable Jerusalem will probably be turned out, to go, once 
more, into the useful and ornamental pursuit of peanuts and gum- 
drop^ D. I\ 



From the Cincinnati Commercial. January 29tli, 1870. 

The Arlington, Washington, January 26. 

I was shown, a few days since, a communication in the Commer- 
cial, signed by a number of citizens of Memphis, purporting to be 
a counter-statement to my biographical sketch of the Hon. W. J. 
Smith, more familiarly known as -Old Jerusalem." This communi- 
cation escaped my notice at the time of its publication, and I learn 
since that much sympathy i* excited in the House by what the 
friends of this member are pleased to term "a wanton attack on a 
good Union man, who fought gallantly his way up from private to 
i lie position of Brevet Brigadier-General." 

AS TO THE CARD OF SMITH'S FRIENDS. 

I beg these sympathetic friends to suspend their generous emo- 
tions until they learn a few facts. And the first that I purpose to 
impress upon their loyal, impulsive bosoms is that I make no 
wanton attacks on any one. As a journalist, it is my duty to 



puncture charlatans and imbeciles to the best of my ability, and il 
is not with me a labor of love. I do it from a high sense of duty 
to my party and Government, and can appeal to a better record of 
loyalty to both than two-thirds of these sensitive sympathizers can 
show, and, above all, I want them to know that I am certain of my 
tacts before I make a move, involving such consequences as does a 
personal assault on an honorable member of Congress. 

It will be observed that the communication referred in .Iocs not 
pretend to refute any assertion of fact thai I made. Il is a certifi 
cate of good character generally. Now such evidence of good 
character is applicable only when the charges of misconduct are 
in doubt. This is not the case in the present instance, and it would 
be well for the friends to begin by denying at leasl some of the 
charges made time and again against the gentleman in question. 
Then the allegation of good character in general, would be more 
applicable. It is at best a negative sorl of evidence, and means 
only that the witness knows no ill of the person indicted, and in 
the case of the venerable Jerusalem this amount- to a confession 
of not knowing him at all. 

SMITHS FIGHTLN<i. 
As tor his fighting, it is the dreary sort of stuff we hear run;;' in 
our ears by every rogue who seeks to hide his short-comings under 
the ample folds of the star spangled banner that has been so often 
used in that way that it is getting to be very dirty and ragged. 
Smith was a member of the West Tennesse cavalry, subsequently 
called the Sixth Tennessee, and if this regimenl did any lighting 
other than that of a bummer campaign among unarmed people for 
plunder, it was unknown to the officers in command during the Mar. 
in Tennessee. The sympathizers can test this by appealing to 
(Jen. Washburn, now on the floor with them, and I will abide by 
his response. If not satisfied with this they can appeal to Gen. 
George H. Thomas, or any other general officer in command in that 
part of Tennessee. 

OLD JERUSALEM'S BRILLIANT CAREER. 

On Old Jerusalem's part in this noble style ot warfare, we have 
some records that throw much light on his brilliant career. I hold 
in my hands a document marked u General Orders No. L68," and 
dated " Headquarters, Sixteenth Army Corps, Memphis, Tennessee, 
December 9, 1863," which document purports to be the record ol 



9 

<•- a general court-martial which convened at Bolivar, Tenness 
pursuant to Special, Orders No. 12, paragraph 12,dated KUh March, 
L863, from th^se headquarters, and of which Col. Robert B. Latham, 
LOUtii Illinois Infantry, was President; 1 when W. J. Smith -was 
arraigned and tried on charges, first, of robbery," and the specifi- 
cations set forth about as vile a detail of stealing a side-saddle, then 
a mule, then bed-clothing such as quilts, counterpanes, sheets, etc. ; 
then he robbed a church, then a bale of cotton. All going, I sup- 
pose, to make up the property he claimed to have been taken from 
him by the secessionists, and that grew in value from the $4000 
paid by the order of the General commanding, by a tax collected 
on the neighborhood, to the enormous amount now pending before 
< !ongress. 

SMITHS EMBEZZLEMENTS AND INSUBORDINATION. 

The second charge is one of "misapplication and embezzlement 
of public property intrusted to him." 

Charge third is of Insubordination, while the fourth is of conduct 
unbecoming an officer and gentleman, and is the rehash of the first, 
the officers composing the couil laboring under the belief that a 
robbery of a woman of her side saddle, and of a church, is rather 
ungentlemanly ami unofficer-like. 

This document is authenticated by the name of " S. A. Hurlbut 
Major General, and T. II. Harris, U. S. A.. Adjutant General," and 
I airi assured by good authority that the reason this old fellow did 
not find his way into the penitentiary instead of Congress, is that 
in the trouble that followed the trial, brought about by the unex- 
pected arrival of (General Hood and the Confederate army, the 
case 1 was not followed up to a just conclusion. 

So much for Old Jerusalem's military record. 

If any one cares to peruse the military part as something to be 
•proud of. he must use due diligence in knocking such shallow pre- 
tenders in the head. It is a duty we owe to ourselves and the 
gallant men who really offered their lives to their country. 

SMITHS POLITICAL PAST. 
As for this gent Ionian's political past, I have before me an ad- 
dress issued by "The District Executive Committee to the Repub- 
lican voters of the Eighth Congressional District of Tennessee," 
and signed by J L. Chandler, Robert Medlin, J. W. Purviance, A. 
K.Davis and S. J. Ireland, and dated October 17, 1808; and this 



10 

address publishes to the world the infamous political record of this 
man, that I gave in brief in my letter, and much of sue!) infamy 1 
did not give for lack of space. Take, for example, his support, 
while in the Legislature oi Tennessee, of Edmund Cooper's bill, 
that sought indirectly to reduce the colored citizen to his former 
state of bondage, and which the New York Tribune denounced as 
''establishing a system which differed from slavery only in degree." 
As Old Jerusalem is running on sympathy, it would he well for the 
sympathizers to look up this record, and see how far his past 
agrees with their present. 

Then, in this address, follows the charge that, as a member of the 
Tennessee Legislature, ho sold his vote ami influence to the Mem 
phis Freighting Company for twenty live thousand dollars, paid in 
stock of that company, that was so infamous in iis illegal monopoly 
that the people sustained the courts in their destruction of it. 

SMITHS UNPARALLELED SWINDLE. 

The next charge I give in the language of the ( 'onimittee. "An? 
other plundering scheme, the very creature of Smith, ha* heen 
thus far nmre successful. No such swindling projecl has, within 
our knowledge, ever before heen devised and put in operation 
under the forms of law in this or any other State. We refer to the 
Nonconnah Turnpike Company. The original charter was granted 
May l'4, 1866, and empowered the corporation to build bridges and 
repair the levees acres-, the Nonconnah Creed; and bottom, on three 
of the principal roads leading into Memphis, and to charge heavy 
tolls, the right extending to a period of twenty-five years. By an 
amendment to the charter, granted on the 4th of March, 1867, 
power was given to the Company to take and use dirt, stone and 
timber within sixty feet on each side from the center of the road. 
without making any provision whatever for compensation to own- 
ers for property taken: The Company, under this charter obtained 
by Smith, has seized the bridges over the Nonconnah on the Her 
sando and Horn Lake road, built by Shelby county, and its proper- 
ty, too, just as much as is its jail, and it is levying a toll of ten 
cei.ts on each foot passenger, and from twenty live to seventy live 
cents on teams crossing the bridges on either road. Thus, the pro- 
perty of Shelby county is, under a color of law, seized by a lew of 
its citizens, and made use of to lleece the community. Every poor 
negro passing Nonconnah to or from Memphis, who crosses on foot 



11 

these bridges, built by the county, is charged ten cents. In one 
instance, a negro wishing to cross the bridge on the Hernando road, 
and having no money, was refused permission. In his anxiety to 
cross the stream, he endeavored to lord it, and perished in the 
attempt. The right to charge these tolls extends, as we before re- 
marked, for a period of twenty-live years, before which time Mem- 
phis will probably number two hundred thousand people, and the 
value of the privilege, if not declared unconstitutional, will be in- 
calculable, as will be the burden of the public. For his services 
in securing this charter, W. J. Smith receives a gift of one-fourth 
of its entire interest. Does this look like equal and exact justice 
to all men ?" 

DON PIATT DISMISSES SMITH AS THE MOST CORRUPT RAS- 
CAL IN CONGRESS. 

I have not the space or the time to follow this man through his 
infamous career, from the gumdrops and peanuts of the Grand 
Junction, to his appearance on the floor of Congress, as a mem er 
elect from a civilized community in Tennessee. There is no step 
that is not tainted with fraud, and no act thai lias not been left 
with clear positive proof to sustain the charge of corruption. He 
entered the army to plunder, and the Legislature to steal, and 
has used due diligence in the prosecution of both, with no shame 
to restrain, and no conscience to check him. I have not told half, 
for there are some charges too foul for my pen or your paper. 

We owe it to our party, if not our country, to shake off such 
creatures. How long we can retain the contidence of the people 
while crowding such creatures to the front, as trusted agents, if not 
leaders, any one is prepared to answer. It is a degradation to our 
Congress, that, under a shallow pretence of loyalty, such members 
should be retained, and we pollute the war records of our gallant 
soldiers when we permit such camp followers to draw honors from 
them. 

And here I leave Old Jerusalem; and if the Republican party in 
Congress can sustain him I can stand it. But I do not want to hear 
any more of the cry ot wanton cruelty and persecution. D. P. 

The Cincinnati Commercial of the 5th Feb., contained the follow- 
ing letter from Colonel Pitser Miller, relative to the conduct and 
character of the so-called Hon. Wm. J. Smith, holding a seat in 
Congress from the Memphis District. There is no man in the State 
more generally and favorably known than Col. Miller. He is a man 



of unquestioned loyalty, a native oi East Tennessee, and for many 
years a resident of the Western District. 

Bolivar, Tenn., February 1, 1870. 
To the Editors of tin Commercial: 

I read your correspondent's (Don Piatt) article in regard to Gen., 
W. J. Smith, and thought the statements were justified by the facts. 
I then read the article of January 3d., signed by Barbour Lewis, and 
thirty-eignt others, denying all thai Don Piatt stated, and lauding 
him to the skies as a man oi' line character, and a hero, and every- 
thing that v>as laudable. I claim to he as good a Union man as 
anybody, but I like lo see lair play. General Smith and m\>elf are 
on'the best of terms, and have always been friendly, but the idea 
oi' those thirty-nine citizens saying he had a good character, N re 
markable. Most oi' the thirty nine who signed it are clever men, 
but a pressure must have been put on them. I know lha one of 
them, an officer in the Government, told me they tried hard to gel 
him to sign it, and another in high office said he had almost rather 
have died than sign it, bu1 ii looked as if lie was obliged to do it. 

General Smith's general character is infamous. * * 

During the warhe levied a contribution on forty of his neighbors, 
at Grand Junction,. of sixty dollars, and when he collected it, he 
took two, or three or four times as much. lie took from some 
pianos, from some mules, and others bales of cotton. So successful 
was he in this thai, for another pretended lo<s. he levied a further 
contribution of ten thousand dollars on the same neighbors, and 
would have collected it. but General Thomas was appealed to, at 
Nashville, and stopped it. 

He has thirty-nine signers to hi- good character ; and if the same 
zeal was used to gel signatures to his infamous character, your pa 
per would not hold the names. 

I was in the midst of the Federal army during the whole war. and 
never heard of his lighting ; but his regimenl was a terror to all 
good citizens. As a sample of his course dining the war, I inclose 
copies of a couple of transactions with a clever widow living near 
Grand Junction, filed in our clerk's office^ in settlement as adminis 
tratrix : 

"Grand Junction. September 11, l862. 

u Eeceived of Mrs. Y. Hunt, twenty dollar- lor bringing four ne 
groes from Bolivar. W. J. Smith." 

Bolivar was seventeen miles distant. 

Col. Yeatman and Wm. H. Brown, merchants of your city, know 
me personally. Hon. Horatio King, late Postmaster-General, and 
Gen. C. C. Wash Burne, of Washington City, also know me. 

Respectfully, 

PITSER MILLER. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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